another SOTA (the Lyons meet the Jones)

[Charles C Doyle]

I was going to ask whether anyone says (or writes) "keeping up with the Jones."  But I discover that thousands and thousands of Googlefolk do.

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Laurence Horn [laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 11:47 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
)
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A follow-up

On Apr 24, 2012, at 8:19 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> A new, evidently quite literate and charming play on Broadway, "The =
Lyons", was reviewed in the Times today:
> =
http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/theater/reviews/the-lyons-by-nicky-s=
ilver-at-vineyard-theater-review.html
>=20
> It's a "savagely sentimental portrait of familial loneliness" by Nicky =
Silver and starring Linda Lavin, which is fine, only the family in =
question consists of Curtis Lyons, Lisa Lyons, Ben Lyons, and Rita =
Lyons, which according to the way I was brought up would make the family =
(and thus the name of any eponymous play) "The Lyonses".  Alternatively, =
the members of the family would consist of "Curtis Lyon", "Lisa Lyon", =
etc.  Apparently this didn't bother either the playwright or the =
reviewer, who doesn't mention it.  Has this shift now become inevitable? =
 (Well, I suppose the play could have been called "The Lyon's".)=20
>=20


And now on display:
=
http://www.examiner.com/review/keeping-up-with-these-jones-a-rewarding-ven=
ture-yale-rep-world-premiere

Note that in this case, the playwright does in fact call his play "The =
Realistic Joneses", and that the reviewer consistently uses "Joneses" in =
his review, yet clearly neither of these facts prevented the headline =
writer and his/her editor from "correcting" this to "these Jones".=20

LH

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